I think this was the first time Cohen really “got” the gist of the Easter Bunny. I know we have said that every Christmas and Easter since he was one and a half, and I’ll bet we’ll continue to say it until he’s 7, and by then he’ll be close to “getting it” too well and we won’t be pretending for much long after that. He woke up EXTRA early (not because he was excited, but because this is what he does). Jacob and I explained that anything before 5 means we stay in bed. However, in the midst of pouting and making his way to the living room, he discovered his easter basket. He came back down the hall and into our bedroom, making his way to my side of the bed: “mama, I got a secret to tell you” he said, and then he came up really close and whispered, “mama– mama, the easter bunny comed.” (all past tense words have “ed” you see.)

We went out to discover his Easter basket had a nerf gun and punching bags. Nothing says Easter Grace like guns and punching bags! We let Sophie sleep a little more while Cohen practiced shooting his gun. When Sophie woke up, she squealed with delight when she opened her purple eggs and her new purple baby stroller in its purple wrapping paper. (She daily requests to wear purple.) She quickly became the easter egg thief, stuffing her mouth with as many gummy bear and mini-chocolate chip cookies as possible.

It has only been four days, but I’m pretty sure we have already lost one of the two nerf guns and most of the darts. We had all but one dart and one gun left (we should call this the “paci syndrome”– no matter how many pacis or nerf darts you have, it always come down to the last one that you have to keep finding and re-finding forever.) Jacob taught Cohen how to have a “duel”– they would start back to back, take five steps, and then say “attack!” Cohen would shoot the one dart and Jacob would lob the punching bag at him trying to block it. Meanwhile, Sophie was repeatedly requesting to read “jesus” from the “bible” over and over again.